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Jettison the File Manager Please

I'm going to make as rational a plea as I can for Sparkol to jettison the incredibly bad VideoScribe file manager in favor of the default Windows and Mac OS file managers. I hope others will express their opinions.

Here are the ways that the VideoScribe File Manager actively harms user productivity:

It arbitrarily truncates file names. Production designers routinely use filenames in excess of the 16 or so characters it can display. When we name files with company and project codes, as in "BluePearl April Trade Show Video Block Diagram 1.svg", it truncates the required data. It is impractical to rename files for use with VideoScribe, so we are forced to keep an OS file manager window open for reference.

It is slow. Navigating down a 10-level folder hierarchy is excruciating. It forces you to navigate from the root each time you launch VideoScribe, instead of remembering what folder you were working in.

The icons are illegible, and somewhat ugly!

There is no search function.

There is no sort function.

All of the features above have been developed and refined for literally decades by Microsoft and Apple. Why reinvent the wheel with something inferior, which actively hurts your users?

I am unaware of a single benefit created by the VideoScribe file manager. The animation preview is interesting, but hardly crucial, and I doubt many users would miss it.

I was considering attaching a video of using Windows and Mac OS to search, sort and select files, but I am quite certain the Staff at Sparkol have used one or both of these operating systems in the last 25 years. My guess is that some of you agree with my criticisms, especially if you have any real design experience.

Update: On the old answers.sparkol.com site, if you click the "popular" button on the upper right, this issue is BOTH the most popular, and also the third most popular request.

3 people like this idea

M

Mike Metcalf

On Fri, 25 Apr, 2014 at 2:23 AM

I strongly agree with Dave's request! Standard generic windows and mac file managers would be a noticeable improvement in several ways.